Ep 176 Contemplative Figures: Ignatius of Loyola

There is much to learn from the lives of contemplative people in history.  

Today, we explore the legacy of Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits.  Learn how his spiritual exercises continue to influence our modern lives and ways we can apply and adapt for the 21 century.

Additional Resources:

Pray As You Go app

Jesuits Guide to Almost Anything by James Martin, SJ

Learning to Pray by James Martin, SJ

Transcript

St. Ignatius of Loyola

[00:00:00] Christina: Hello, it's great to be with you today. We are kicking off a summer series. That's actually based on a series we did last summer, looking at contemplative and mystical figures from history. And it's actually been one of the most popular on the podcast. And so we thought, why not take this summer to explore some different men and women from history and see what we can learn from their stories.

So the first person we want to explore is Ignatius of Loyola. He's the founder of the Jesuits. And I know I grew up. Having a lot of Jesuit high schools in my city and community. And that's actually part of Ignatius's legacy. Now, as I was preparing for this podcast, I realized, wow, this man has had an incredible influence in my life and I've picked up so much from him over the years that I probably haven't even realized until I sat down to do this.

And he's probably most famous for this book that he wrote of spiritual exercises. And he offers various practices to help people to deepen their relationships with God. And while there's many different practices today, we're just going to focus on three of those practices for the purpose of this podcast.

And so the first one that I want to talk about is the idea of retreats. So Ignatius was very fond of having the people in his order take time away to go on these retreats as a way to deepen their walks with God. And I remember when I was in seminary, first learning about this idea of taking a day retreat for yourself.

And I think up to that point, I had done conferences where maybe you go and you have a lot of learning and different speakers or maybe special retreats. But again, very heavy on either there's teaching or a lot of recreation as part of the retreat. But his spiritual retreats were a little bit different where it's really focused on contemplation and going deeper into your relationship and walk with God.

And so this is something that I've found super helpful, just taking a day away, half day, things like that as a way to center myself. Chris, I know you've had some unique experiences with retreats as well that maybe you want to offer us. 

[00:01:56] Chris: Yeah. Yeah. I love retreats and I was with you in some of those learnings about retreats and I think, something that is unique about Ignatian retreats are that there, you can do a couple of different types of retreats.

One is a seven day silent retreat they have, a month long retreat that you can do. To take you through the Ignatian exercises, but I was able to participate in a seven day silent retreat just as a one of the processes of my spiritual direction training program.

And I have to say your retreat sounds nice. It sounds lovely, but I think one of the things that they couple a retreat with is silence. And so it was a seven day silent retreat and not that, people that. That go on retreats have to use silence, but I think silence is a unique tool that the Jesuits use in deepening going deeper, your awareness of what is going around, going on around you, what is going on inside of you.

I think is heightened by the practice of silence in these retreats. And I think for some people that can be super scary. I'm an extroverted person. And so whenever they told me I had to do a seven day silent retreat, I was like, I can do hard things. This will definitely be challenging.

But that's my temperament. I had other people that were like, almost went into panic attack because they didn't know if they could do a seven day silent retreat. When we say that Ignatian was famous for retreats, these are wonderful tools to deepen our relationship with God.

But sometimes I think we can hear it or look at it and say, oh, I can't do that. And I think that's a mindset issue. Whenever we approach something that, that is going to deepen our lives, we can say I can't do that. Or we can say. It's going to be great. And I think you just have to determine on the front end what do you want your mindset for this experience to be, what do you want to happen?

And, some people might think that's manifesting, but I can honestly say that seventh day silent retreat was one of the most. Transformational experiences that I've done. And, I had to be intentional about, I went on bike rides while I practice silence, I just didn't, sit in a room and pray the whole time I cooked food.

I, there are lots of activities that I did that I would also consider prayer in my silence. But I love retreats and I think they can be so beneficial for people's lives. 

[00:04:38] Christina: Yes, maybe just to add to that, if there are like Jesuit diehards listening to this podcast, we are not that. We've certainly been influenced by these practices, but have adapted them to our own.

And so I personally have not done a seven day silent retreat for me a day, half day even I've done a weekend that those sorts of things have been really meaningful to me. So again, take what's helpful and adapted to our modern lives is my motto. Next a practice that has definitely been probably my favorite and most transformative that I've gained from the Jesuits is the prayer of examine, and I remember learning about this years ago.

And one of the things I appreciated was the context that these Jesuit missionaries and priests and order, they were going out to these. Places that weren't, unknown territories where they didn't have other Jesuits. And they would go in pairs oftentimes and the prayer of examine was something that These people were taught to do, and it was a way to reflect on their daily lives as they were in process of doing good work and the places where they were going.

And by way of explanation, the prayer of examine is where we are taking a pause, and I like to do it at the end of my day. Some people do examine throughout the day, but for me, it works at the end of the day. And to notice two questions, my consolations and my desolations. So where in my day did I find.

Consolation or a sense of God's presence or goodness or love, taking a moment to name those things. And then contrary to that, where did I find moments of desolation where there seemed to be an absence of that presence or something that was disconnecting to me as opposed to connecting. And I like that there's both of those things, because I think it's important to take time to notice both the places of connection and the places of disconnection.

I have found over the years, practicing examined that. Oftentimes my consolation can turn into a desolation or vice versa, right? So maybe I felt a sense of connection. And then right after that, there was a thought that maybe I'm wanted to chip away at the experience that I was having.

Maybe worry came in or a fleeting thought that would make me feel like, Oh, maybe this isn't real. Or contrary, maybe there was a desolation that happened. And when I reflect on that, it's actually there was such a good that came out of that. It was uncomfortable in the moment, but upon reflection there, there was a nugget out of that desolation that I can take into my next day.

I think also, as I've practiced this over the years, I, Have noticed patterns as well, which has been really helpful with the prayer of examine. And so this is actually something that Chris and I together as a couple. We practice individually. I think when we first learned about this, but has made it a pretty steady practice in our marriage where at the end of the day, trying to name moments of consolation and desolation.

And we're talking like, less than a minute. We're not like going into these deep dive reflection times at the end of the day, but just to kind of name, this was a highlight of my day. And this was a part of my day that I didn't love so much and I still want to name it and be present to it.

And from that noticing wow, I noticed that. This particular day of the week, I'm having a lot of desolations that are happening. And so maybe how I'm structuring my day needs to change because I'm ending the day repeatedly week after week with some desolations. Might I have some adjustments to be made or I'm noticing that I really come alive when I'm around this group of people, or when my morning goes this way and paying attention to that so that we can cultivate more of that.

I've loved the prayer of examine. 

[00:07:51] Chris: Yeah, I too have loved the prayer of examine and just, Maybe to say something about St. Ignatius, like his genius was in his practicality. He was such a practical leader. And so I really have appreciated the prayer of examine and even to take it a little bit further than what you said, Christina we had tried for years and years, the practice to practice praying together, and I could not connect to Praying together until we instituted.

Something so practical like praying the prayer of examine the consolation and desolation. It gave such a foundation and practical ways to pray and to look at your life. And so it has also been super informative to my own spiritual journey. And. Impactful. So I too love the prayer of examine.

[00:08:48] Christina: And then the third piece of the Jesuit practices that we want to talk about today is the imaginative prayer. And this is a fun one where he invites us to look at scripture and to picture ourselves in the story, right? A practical example of the story of Jesus in the boat and there's the storm happening.

And to place yourselves in the character of maybe Simon Peter or Jesus or an onlooker or things like that. And to invite us to, what did it smell like? What did it feel like? What are the emotions? What might you be thinking? And to use our imagination as part of prayer, right? Because I think that sometimes we can separate that and we can look at ancient texts with our mind or, trying to approach it spiritually, et cetera.

But somehow using our imagination makes the story just really pop, become vivid. And I think helps us, or at least in my own Life has helped me to connect more with the stories and how it relates to my day to day. So again, going back to that practical thing you mentioned, Chris, how do we take God in everyday life?

And I think that was very much Ignatius of Loyola's primary thing is God is in all things and these practices and these exercises to strengthen that awareness.

[00:09:54] Chris: Yeah. And you may come from a faith tradition that, that says using your imagination in prayer can get off into weirdness. And I think I came from that sort of tradition, but I think what imaginative prayer has done for me, it's actually deepened my understanding of. Biblical characters.

And so I've loved engaging in imaginative prayer, but I did have some roadblocks on the front end. I had to experiment with it and then look at what, what's happening in my life as a result of imaginative prayer. And so I, it totally led to good things, right? Imaginative. Prayer is leading to really good things.

And I think a lot of people are like how do I'm not really good with my imagination or in a religious or spiritual sort of context. And I think one of the things that I've found helpful is, there are all kinds of prayer apps that you can use, but there is a Ignatian. Prayer app.

It's pray as you go. And it's the Jesuits that are in England and they lead a, it's just like a 13 minute prayer. You can listen to it while you're driving somewhere. You can listen to it while you're sitting out on the porch. You can listen to it anywhere. But one of the practices is imaginative prayer.

And so they lead you through this guided meditation of putting yourself in the place of Zacharias sitting in the tree or in the crowd, when Jesus was approaching Zacharias, what were you hearing? What were there's such a bodily. experience to the prayer that engages your heart and your mind.

And I think a lot of times when we come to prayer, we're just engaging our mind. Like what, at a checklist, what do I need to pray for? And I think this deepens prayer for so many people.

[00:11:39] Christina: And like I said earlier these are just a handful of the spiritual exercises that Ignatius of Loyola promoted and wrote about and experienced with his order. There are definitely more. I do want to highlight an author. So in addition to the praise you go, that's a wonderful resource. But Father James Martin is a Jesuit and he's written some really practical books taking these idea of the Jesuits and bringing them down to our modern day life.

So one of those books is the Jesuits guide to almost everything. That's a really helpful book that I read years ago that again, boils these down to the modern life. And then interestingly enough James Martin was on like the Stephen Colbert show late night shows with his book, learning to pray a guide for everyone.

, where he takes some of these concepts and boils them down. So I would encourage you to check out James Martin, if you're interested in learning a little bit more about the Jesuits. 

[00:12:25] Chris: In addition to books on Ignatius spirituality there are many retreat centers that you can find all over the place. We live in Wisconsin and there is a wonderful Jesuit retreat center. retreat center near Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and it is a beautiful place where you can engage in a seven day silent retreat.

And there are many Jesuit retreat centers and in the United States and in many locations all over the world.

[00:12:58] Christina: Again, just as a reminder, as I mentioned at the top of the podcast, that this is an inspiration from our last summer's podcast series, exploring the life of different contemplatives. And so I encourage you to check out our series from last summer. Those are episodes number 130 through 136, where we also take a look at the lives of many other contemplatives and we will continue to do so over the next few weeks.

Thanks for joining us. 

And now is the part of our podcast where we talk about what we are into.

So what are we into? 

[00:13:32] Chris: I have been into raised garden beds. So we've had one raised garden bed and for some reason I'm like, Oh, we could plant more things if we get another raised garden bed. And so with, Installing a new raised garden bed, you have to learn a lot about soil and, things that are in the soil to make plants grow.

And so I've been on a deep dive of learning about things that need to go into the soil to make vegetables and flowers grow. And so I am excited to, I have the seeds, I'm going to plant the seeds here in a day or so. And this is, Learn as you go. So I'm excited to see what happens with this new raised bed.

[00:14:17] Christina: Yes, you are excited. I will confirm that I will maybe going along with the outside theme. I am into working outside on the patio. I'm working meeting like with my laptop out there. It's a lovely space. Our neighbor actually has some really lovely gardens going on, flowers, etc. They're really good at this.

They're a little bit ahead of us in that area. Regard. And so I love just sitting outside on the cool breeze under the canopy and doing my work out there. It's just something about hearing the birds chirp while I'm typing away on my laptop that is engaging. So that is what I am into. Thank you so much for joining us and until next time, make it a great week.